This invention relates generally to compaction apparatus, and particularly to agricultural compaction apparatus such as bagging machines.
An agricultural bagging machine is used to compact field crop such as silage within a large storage bag. The bagging machine generally includes an input mechanism for accepting the crop and feeding the crop through a rotor arrangement which in turn compacts the crop within a storage bag releasably deployed behind the bagging machine. As the machine fills the storage bag with crop, it moves forward while deploying the filled bag rearward upon the ground.
The rotor arrangement plays an important role in delivering the crop material into the bag in a desired state of compaction. The rotor arrangement generally takes the form of a cylindric mounting member carrying a plurality of teeth which engage the crop material on the input side and deliver the material at the bag opening. As the teeth return to the input side, they pass through slots in a comb arrangement for preventing return of crop material to the input side of the rotor. The configuration of these rotor teeth determine the nature of compaction provided by the bagging machine as well as the load requirements on the rotor motor. It is desirable to maintain substantially the same number of teeth passing through the stripping comb at any time in order to maintain substantially constant power requirements because intermittent power spikes degrade the rotor motor. Rotor configurations addressing the need to maintain substantially the same number of teeth in the comb at any given time, however, often adversely affect the resulting compaction forces. For example, a simple spiraling tooth configuration provides a constant number of teeth in the comb, but tends to push the crop material rightward or leftward and undesirably over compacts one side of the bag.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,337,805 entitled "Agricultural Bag Loading Apparatus" and assigned to the assignee of the present invention describes a rotor arrangement for an agricultural bagging machine. A plurality of teeth are mounted on the rotor shaft in random configuration with the teeth being generally evenly distributed on the surface of the shaft. The teeth are adapted to force silage from an intake chamber through a passageway under the rotor and into an output chamber. As the shaft further rotates, the teeth pass through a stripping comb mounted adjacent the rotor arrangement for removing crop material from the teeth upon return to the input chamber. The disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,337,805 is incorporated herein in its entirety.
In a typical case, compaction is desirably provided in a linear fashion directly behind the rotor arrangement and into the storage bag without pushing the crop material to the right or left side of the bag. In other cases it may be desirable to over compact the center or over compact the sides in order to provide a desired crop compaction within the bag.
It is, therefore, desirable that a rotor arrangement of a crop bagging machine provide a desired crop compaction, e.g., uniform left to right compaction, within a storage bag, employ a relatively large number of rotor teeth, and operate under consistent power requirements. The subject matter of the present invention provides such a rotor arrangement for a bagging machine.